The Coffee House

[Gary A.]

The compromise is alternating one snow day for one blizzard pack. That way nobody is happy.

 

[JonA_CT]

From the teacher point of view, blizzard packs are nightmare. There's almost no way to make sure that it's actually relevant material, so it just ends up being busy work that the students don't really want/need and that the teacher doesn't want to or won't grade.

I don't think we are that far away from being able to hold virtual classes, though. I could easily set-up a live feed from the laptop I'm using right now, and the vast majority of my students have the technology to support it. Once we move to the one-to-one device model (which is maybe 5 years away), I'd guess that will start to become the norm.

 

[Gary A.]

Buenos Dias Coffee Hosers. Gary is having a steaming hot cup of Chiapas coffee, (gotta get all I can before the wall gets built). Delish. It is a cool morning with slight fog tossing a coat of wetness across every blade of grass. This week is going fast as it is already Wednesday. Yesterday, Gary picked up some new 1.5" flex hose for the pond. The original hose got brittle and had to be abandoned. Presently, Gary is using a patchwork of scrap hose which is leaking.

Miss Maggie has hopped into the kitchen, where Gary is keyboarding away, wagging and wiggling her entire little body in a good morning greeting. Miss Maggie is the happiest jammin' pooch in the world. She is always playing and skipping and jumping around. She's quite good at entertaining herself. Just give her a ball and she'll toss it and chase it and bat it about. ... Gary is back. A few minutes ago, Maggie left my side and pulled her food dish off the mat onto the kitchen floor, (with a bit of a crash). So it is breakfast time for Maggie and Gary left the computer in order to attend the muffin dog. Bananas and yogurt, lol ... you peoples know that the proper way to open a banana isn't from the stem ... as alluring that banana handle may seem, but from the base starting with a pinch. Even the jungle primates open their bananas thusly.

 

[Gary A.]

From the teacher point of view, blizzard packs are nightmare. There's almost no way to make sure that it's actually relevant material, so it just ends up being busy work that the students don't really want/need and that the teacher doesn't want to or won't grade.

I don't think we are that far away from being able to hold virtual classes, though. I could easily set-up a live feed from the laptop I'm using right now, and the vast majority of my students have the technology to support it. Once we move to the one-to-one device model (which is maybe 5 years away), I'd guess that will start to become the norm.

In many/most school districts out here, every student gets a computer and has free internet access. If there wasn't a need for babysitting, (God bless all you teachers), virtual education would be a given. Gary imagines that the virtual classroom would cause a dramatic upward tick in family homicides.

 

[davidharmier60]

A bit over 4.5 hours today. It was misting rain as I put up the Marquee and nearly jumped out of my skin when lightning flashed and thunder boomed.
I bought another box of pennies at our bank because Trish said maybe Friday on the one I finished. Thankfully these aren't all 2017D or such. Just checked the Post Office and going to hit the box at the front of the neighborhood and then home.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[Gary A.]

Annnnd ... the good news is that a local businessman is in negotiations with the Tronc group to purchase the LA Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune for $500M, cash. Returning the paper back to local ownership. The Times was family owned until the late '90's when it was sold to this Chicago based corporation which simply gutted the paper and slashing the staff to the point where editors were quitting and saying to use their salary to keep the reporters on. The Times has always been anti-union, but last month voted to unionize as they felt their last resort was collective bargaining. Hopefully, local control and local management will bring the paper back to a semblance of its former self.

 

[terri36 7]

The side boosters landed back at the launch pad for recycling.

Wasn't it great?!? Though one of the boosters was lost, it was incredible footage to watch those side boosters return to a perfect, stand-up landing. It was like special effects from a movie, but better, cause it's real!

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

Definitely. I thought it looked Hollywoodish too. Amazing.

 

[Gary A.]

Yep, the central core was lost. It was designated to land on a drone barge in the Atlantic. Gary suspects SpaceX had an idea that the central core would fail, hence the barge and the ocean. Failing a landing in the ocean is much cheaper than failing at the Space Center. The insurance policy may have been a bond, so a self funded cash policy.

 

[smoke665]

Yep, the central core was lost. It was designated to land on a drone barge in the Atlantic. Gary suspects SpaceX had an idea that the central core would fail, hence the barge and the ocean. Failing a landing in the ocean is much cheaper than failing at the Space Center. The insurance policy may have been a bond, so a self funded cash policy.

While we were at KSC, doing the tour we watched a movie of a Space X launch (California???), that showed several failures, but then showed a landing on a barge. Pretty awesome.

 

[Gary A.]

Yep, Space X is out of Hawthorne, California. The roadster in orbit of the sun is a Tesla.

 

[JonA_CT]

Finally got a flu shot. 33* and cold rain here now.

 

[davidharmier60]

The remainder of this day is creeping along like a snail. Makes me want to nap.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[smoke665]

Yep, Space X is out of Hawthorne, California. The roadster in orbit of the sun is a Tesla.

Not just any Tesla, but supposedly Elon Musk's personal vehicle. There were a lot of jokes/speculation/etc., that there was a Elon Musk look alike dummy in the space suit that was sitting behind the wheel. According to Musk's tweets, the message “Don’t panic!” was stamped on the dashboard and David Bowie was playing on the speakers.

 

[Gary A.]

Yep, Space X is out of Hawthorne, California. The roadster in orbit of the sun is a Tesla.

Not just any Tesla, but supposedly Elon Musk's personal vehicle. There were a lot of jokes/speculation/etc., that there was a Elon Musk look alike dummy in the space suit that was sitting behind the wheel. According to Musk's tweets, the message “Don’t panic!” was stamped on the dashboard and David Bowie was playing on the speakers.

Yep. Musk joked it took a year to design the space suit.